A survey of real-time systems and the programming languages used in their development. Shows how modern real-time programming techniques are used in a wide variety of applications, including robotics, factory automation, and control. A critical requirement for such systems is that the software must

Introduction to real-time systems - Designing real-time systems - Programming in the small - Programming in the large - Reliability and fault tolerance - Exceptions and exception handling - Concurrent programming - Shared variable-based synchronization and communication - Message-based synchronization and communication - Atomic actions, concurrent processes and reliability - Resource control - Real-time facilities - Scheduling - Distributed systems - Low-level programming - The execution environment - A case study in ada.

Real-Time Systems Development introduces computing students and professional programmers to the development of software for real-time applications. Based on the academic and commercial experience of the author, the book is an ideal companion to final year undergraduate options or MSc modules in the area of real-time systems design and implementation. Assuming a certain level of general systems design and programming experience, this text will extend students’ knowledge and skills into an area of computing which has increasing relevance in a modern world of telecommunications and ‘intelligent’ equipment using embedded microcontrollers. This book takes a broad, practical approach in discussing real-time systems. It covers topics such as basic input and output; cyclic executives for bare hardware; finite state machines; task communication and synchronization; input/output interfaces; structured design for real-time systems; designing for multitasking; UML for real-time systems; object oriented approach to real-time systems; selecting languages for RTS development; Linux device drivers; and hardware/software co-design. Programming examples using GNU/Linux are included, along with a supporting website containing slides; solutions to problems; and software examples. This book will appeal to advanced undergraduate Computer Science students; MSc students; and, undergraduate software engineering and electronic engineering students. * Concise treatment delivers material in manageable sections * Includes handy glossary, references and practical exercises based on familiar scenarios * Supporting website contains slides, solutions to problems and software examples

A systematic treatment of the major issues involved in designing a real time system, this textbook includes coverage of task allocation, synchronization, fault-tolerance and reliability.

Pt. I. Real time systems - background. 1. Real time system characteristics. 1.1. Real-time and reactive programs. 2. Formal program development methodologies. 2.1. Requirement specification. 2.2. System specifications. 3. Characteristics of real-time languages. 3.1. Modelling features of real-time languages. 3.2. A look at classes of real-time languages. 4. Programming characteristics of reactive systems. 4.1. Execution of reactive programs. 4.2. Perfect synchrony hypothesis. 4.3. Multiform notion of time. 4.4. Logical concurrency and broadcast communication. 4.5. Determinism and causality -- pt. II. Synchronous languages. 5. ESTEREL language : structure. 5.1. Top level structure. 5.2. ESTEREL statements. 5.3. Illustrations of ESTEREL program behaviour. 5.4. Causality problems. 5.5. A historical perspective. 6. Program development in ESTEREL. 6.1. A simulation environment. 6.2. Verification environment. 7. Programming controllers in ESTEREL. 7.1. Auto controllers. 8. Asynchronous interaction in ESTEREL -- 9. Futurebus arbitration protocol : a case study. 9.1. Arbitration process. 9.2. Abstraction of the protocol. 9.3. Solution in ESTEREL -- 10. Semantics of ESTEREL. 10.1. Semantic structure. 10.2. Transition rules. 10.3. Illustrative examples. 10.4. Discussions. 10.5. Semantics of Esterel with exec -- pt. III. Other synchronous languages. 11. Synchronous language LUSTRE. 11.1. An overview of LUSTRE. 11.2. Flows and streams. 11.3. Equations, variables and expressions. 11.4. Program structure. 11.5. Arrays in LUSTRE. 11.6. Further examples. 12. Modelling Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) in LUSTRE. 12.1. Time-triggered protocol. 12.2. Modelling TTP in LUSTRE. 13. Synchronous language ARGOS. 13.1. ARGOS constructs. 13.2. Illustrative example. 13.3. Discussions -- pt. IV. Verification of synchronous programs. 14. Verification of ESTEREL programs. 14.1. Transition system based verificationy of ESTEREL Programs. 14.2. ESTEREL transition system. 14.3. Temporal logic based verification. 14.4. Observer-based verification. 14.5. First order logic based verification. 15. Observer based verification of simple LUSTRE programs. 15.1. A simple auto controller. 15.2. A complex controller. 15.3. A cruise controller. 15.4. A train controller. 15.5. A mine pump controller -- pt. V. Integration of synchrony and asynchrony. 16. Communicating reactive processes. 16.1. An overview of CRP. 16.2. Communicating reactive processes : structure. 16.3. Behavioural semantics of CRP. 16.4. An illustrative example : banker teller machine. 16.5. Implementation of CRP. 17. Semantics of communicating reactive processes. 17.1. A brief overview of CSP. 17.2. Translation of CSP to CRP. 17.3. Cooperation of CRP nodes. 17.4. Ready-trace semantics of CRP. 17.5. Ready-trace semantics of CSP. 17.6. Extracting CSP ready-trace semantics from CRP semantics. 17.7. Correctness of the translation. 17.8. Translation into MEIJE process calculus. 18. Communicating reactive state machines. 18.1. CRSM constructs. 18.2. Semantics of CRSM. 19. Multiclock ESTEREL. 19.1. Need for a multiclock synchronous paradigm. 19.2. Informal introduction. 19.3. Formal semantics. 19.4. Embedding CRP. 19.5. Modelling a VHDL subset. 19.6. Discussion. 20. Modelling real-time systems in ESTEREL. 20.1. Interpretation of a global clock in terms of exec. 20.2. Modelling real-time requirements. 21. Putting it together